Tag Archives: zombies

Pancakes were the first food I ever learned to cook. Every Sunday, my dad and I were allowed to take over the kitchen and make breakfast. The recipe was from this nondescript kiddie recipe book, but I’ve been using the same recipe ever since. I still love making Sunday morning pancakes, but I also bring along this pancake mix whenever I go camping or to a cottage. There is nothing more comforting then waking up to the smell of fresh pancakes.

Ingredients

Instructions

To make the perfect pancake batter, mix all the dry ingredients into a large bowl, and create a little hole in the middle for the egg to sit.

Whisk the egg gently while slowly adding the milk, soon you will have the perfect lump-free pancake batter!

Start with a nice hot skillet and melt the butter, a teaspoon at a time, turning the temperature down before cooking.

Using a ladle pour approx half a ladle full of batter into the hot, buttery skillet.

When the batter begins to bubble, gently flip the pancake with a spatula, monitoring the temperature closely to avoid burning.

Place the cooked pancakes in a toaster oven on low to keep them warm.

Top with real maple syrup.

Here is my classic pancake recipe, presented in all of it’s worn glory:

Having just watched the line dancing zombie splatterfest Dead & Breakfast, I’m reminiscing about some of the best and worst B&B’s I’ve stayed in during my travels.

Dead & Breakfast Photo courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment

As my boyfriend can attest to, I love – love – breakfast buffets. One of the more unique breakfast buffets that I had the pleasure of devouring was in Japan. We stayed in this quaint, traditional inn called a ryokan in the town of Hakone.

Washitsu (traditional Japanese room)

Each room had authentic sliding doors that are called fusuma and we slept on tatami mats that were originally considered an item of luxury (fancy!). For breakfast we were treated to a complete Japanese breakfast, buffet-style. I’m not quite sure what I ate, but I do remember the delicious fish, it was so fresh that it melted in my mouth.

Traditional Japanese Breakfast – Hakone, Japan

Luckily, I have never been barricaded by a swarm of zombies, but the B&B in Bolivia definitely lacked appeal and stands out as one of the worst places I’ve stayed. I needed a last minute accommodation in the small town of Sorata, nestled high in the Bolivian mountains. This was supposed to be one of the nicer B&Bs in the town, full of “European charm”. Perhaps they meant Eastern European charm as my room was so sketchy that I slept in my sleeping bag and kept my knapsack packed, avoiding all contact with anything in the room. The security features weren’t exactly reassuring either.

Dead and Breakfast is a self aware b-movie, country-style zombie romp. If line dancing zombies aren’t reason enough to entice you to watch this bloody mess, then you clearly need more evil spirits to possess your poor soul.

The cast stars a few familiar faces from some of my favourite chick flicks. Jeremy Sisto (Clueless), Bianca Lawson (Kendra from Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and Oz Perkins (Legally Blonde). Together with three other friends, they set out in an RV on a road trip to Galveston for the wedding of their friend (a hilarious cameo by Portia de Rossi) and promptly get lost. They end up in the small town of Lovelock and decide to stay the night at a bed and breakfast run by a creepy owner named Mr. Wise (David Carradine) and a really intense French chef. Tensions start to run high before the first piece of deli meat falls to the ground, and by morning the group finds themselves the suspects of a murder investigation. Their situation is made worse when one of the friends accidentally unleashes the evil spirit of the monstrous “Kuman Thong”. Soon they become trapped in the bed and breakfast and need to find creative ways to fight off the townsfolk who have all been transformed into zombies.

The movie is a clear reference to The Evil Dead right down to the over-the-top chainsaw scene, and though this film may not be breaking any new ground, the blood splatters are generous, the b-movie dialogue is on point, and did I mention the line dancing zombies? The slapstick fun is just enough to keep you hanging around, but the characters fall flat and any suspense is lost somewhere between the line dancing zombies and buckets of blood. This is one hotel that you only need to visit once.

Recommended snack:
One of the best lines in this movie is when in the midst of battle one character states: “I can’t kill anyone. I’m a vegan”. So in honour of her strong vegan stance, try baking up a batch of these Vegan Gluten Free Quinoa Date Squares.

FUN FACT: Oz Perkins is Anthony Perkins son, looks like he’s following down the same horror path as his father! Keep up the creepy work!

My friend and I are always trying to top our previous year’s Halloween costumes so this year we decided on a Marvel Zombies group costume. So here we are: The Hulk, Spiderman, Dark Phoenix, Headpool, Black Widow, Rogue, Dazzler, Wolverine and She Rulk! So much fun, so awesome!

The Marvel Zombies

Zombie Dark Phoenix

We ordered our costumes and my wig from doitstyle.com – all the way from China! They were pretty good, the costumes ranged from $40-$50 and were custom made. I had to follow up a bit with the delivery, but their customer service was friendly and they arrived just in time!

We didn’t want to ruin our costumes, so we sewed bald cap patches onto our suits, made the skin a bit green with some watered down acrylic paint, then blended sharpies together to do the wounds. I also had some latex wounds that I sewed directly onto the arms. We used character dust to dirty-up our costumes and edible blood so that it wouldn’t stain. I sprain painted an old pair of Mary Jane’s to blend in with my boots.

Zombie Dark Phoenix

For my makeup and special effects, I used spirit gum to glue the falling eyeball and bullet wound to my face. Then I filed down some fake nails to look like teeth (my friend’s idea) and glued them on as well. I put a thin layer of liquid latex wherever I wanted flesh to rip off, and put three layers of tissue paper, alternating with the latex. While it was still wet, I ripped the “skin” off, which worked really well over the teeth. I also mixed some oatmeal and liquid latex together and smeared that on my face for texture. I covered the latex with castor oil to support the face cream and help it blend with my face. Next I used some scar gelatin to create lacerations on my jaw and forehead and molded flesh gel over top of red/purple face cream to create the burn effect under my eye. I powdered the gelatin to bring down the shine. For my face and neck I used the zombie face cream kit, and started with the yellow, layered with green and added shadows with grey and red/purple, accenting with a bruise kit around the eyes. Before I did my final makeup and blood, I inserted my contact lens that I got from Clearly Contacts. I used regular MAC makeup on that eye with some gold liner (lining my drooping eyeball as well!). Finally I dabbed Fresh Scab blood in my wounds and splattered some edible blood around my nose and mouth. **all products were Ben Nye

For Spiderman, I glued the fake nail teeth to a piece of bald cap and sharpied some rotten teeth colour and blood. For his intestines we stuffed some pantyhose with styrofoam balls, then used sharpies to paint on some blue and red veins and finished them off with a spray varnish.

Since we didn’t have any pockets, we glued pencil cases and makeup bags to the bottom of plastic limbs from the dollar store. A bloody good functional prop!

Zombie Dark Phoenix & Spiderman

One of the many things I love about my husband is that he really gets into his costume! I could never be with a man who didn’t enjoy dress up.

Greetings & salutations! My name is Paula and I love to write, eat brains, watch scary movies and make fake blood. I'm always on the lookout for my next adventure, and preparing for the zombie apocalypse.